Blossoming Romance
by ObscureAnimeWriter
Summary: OneShot. It might have been the spring air, it might have been the blooming trees, but Ishida couldn’t help but thinking about his Soul Society comrade on a day like this. IshiHime.


**Title: **Blossoming Romance  
**Disclaimer:** I own this series like I own the changing of the seasons.  
**Rating:** G ( K ) – It's fluff, nuthin scary.  
**Spoilers:** Umm...if you didn't know that Ishida got a crush on Orihime during the Soul Society Arc, you might be a little surprised.

**Summary:** OneShot. It might have been the spring air, it might have been the blooming trees, but Ishida couldn't help but thinking about his Soul Society comrade on a day like this. IshiHime. (Post-SS)

We can all thank the beautiful spring weather as of late for this piece. Dedicated to AnimeGirl622, just because.

* * *

Ishida drummed his fingers against his low tabletop, ignoring the school work spread out before him in favor of the distraction provided by his open window. A heavily scented wind invited itself in and ruffled his lank hair, entangling a couple of lost blossoms in the dense mass. One soft petal caught itself in between his glasses and unprotected eye and, as he reached up to remove it, he was reminded once again how dangerous flowers could be. 

Of course, while the flower he was specifically reminiscing about didn't literally belong to a species of tree or weed, he understood that any damage caused by it was purely accidental or out of necessity. She would never intentionally poke him in the eye.

"Ah ha...," Ishida chuckled, massaging the bridge of his nose with the hand not occupied with his glasses. "Inoue-san is truly rubbing off on me."

With his severe frames still in his opposite hand, the young Quincy opted to rest his chin on the one that had formerly cleared his eyes of obstruction as he returned to gazing out the open window. It might have been the spring air, it might have been the blooming trees, but Ishida couldn't help but thinking about his Soul Society comrade on a day like this. Surely, Orihime thrived best in this type of weather when the flowers were reluctant to wilt. She was probably out with Kurosaki and his troupe of cohorts enjoying her youth, unlike Ishida who had opted to stay in out of the soothing weather to keep his own solitude company.

It would be dinner time soon and then she would head home for the evening. Ishida sorely wished to go out and meet her on the way home, to invite her over to share a meal with him only a couple of blocks out of her way, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew that she lived alone much like he and that the isolation, for her, must be devastating, but...well, it was unlikely that her friends would even allow her to spend that much time by herself. Orihime was undoubtedly previously engaged as she ever was...

A vibrant rapping on his front door jolted Ishida out of his thoughts. Leaving his glasses behind on the table, he stumbled down the hall and opened the door. The blurry figure on the other side caused his heart to flutter between beats. "I-Inoue-san!"

A bright smile spread across his buxom classmates face and she held up a shopping bag bulging with food. "Good evening, Ishida-kun! I was kind of lonely so I thought that we might have dinner together," she chirped, swinging around the thin plastic sac that seemed ready to burst at any given second. Orihime blinked up at him and gasped in surprise, "Eh? Ishida-kun, you're not wearing your glasses!"

Ishida squirmed in his doorway, "Ah...no, I left them in...the..."

"Wow...I didn't know your eyes were blue! Are you part foreign?" Orihime cooed as Ishida's words stuttered to a stop, leaning up on her tip-toes to gain better vantage of the bare-faced Ishida.

A blush bloomed across the last Quincy's pale cheeks. "N-no, Inoue-san. It's a recessive gene..." ( 1 )

"Oooh...like we learned in biology last semester?"

"Y-yes...exactly."

Lifting up a fist-full of hair, the happy flower child provided herself as another example. "Like my hair, right?"

"Yes...most likely," he agreed. Her full chest brushed against the flat expanse of his own upper torso and Ishida leaned back a bit. He suspected that those, too, were products of some sort of genetic chance, but chose to remain silent about this comprehension. "So...ah...," the young sewing prodigy struggled to regain control of his tongue. "You...you're not spending the evening with Kurosaki and the others...?"

"Nope!" she shook her head in the negative, taking a step back out of his personal space. "I'm all alone today. It's a shame, too, because the weather is so nice..."

"But aren't you usually busy with Arisawa-san, at least?" he couldn't fathom the notion that Orihime would ever be totally solitary for any significant stretch of time. Certainly, he was aware that she technically lived alone, but the concepts of Orihime and isolation didn't connect in Ishida's mind.

"Tatsuki-chan spends the weekends with her family," the flower princess replied with a shrug. "I was only going to buy enough dinner for me," she switched topics, holding her full shopping bag aloft for emphasis, "but then I remembered that you lived alone just like me so I bought extra for the two of us! I hope you don't mind...I promise to make something 'normal.'"

"Oh...," she had been thinking of him. After returning from the Soul Society and to the reality of her infatuation with the odious Kurosaki, Ishida hadn't believed her to give him a second thought. "Ah, that's fine. Thank you, Inoue-san."

The wind picked up again at that moment, disturbing the momentary peace and sending the petals into another flurry. Orihime turned into the wisp of breeze, inhaling the gentle scent of blooming life from the park across the street. The dark-headed Quincy watched with fascination as she reached up to smooth honeyed strands of fine hair out of her face, eyes closed in the maelstrom of flower petals that were beckoned to her. "It's so beautiful here, Ishida-kun...," Ishida secretly agreed. "I don't ever pass by here on my way home from school so I've never seen this area in full bloom before. Are those cherry blossoms?"

"Ah...no, pear."

She couldn't be real. There was no way he was so fortunate.

His sharply-curved schoolmate turned back around to face him, still surrounded in a swirl of detached flowers likened to a heavy snow fall. The lace on the shirt he had crafted for her caught the fractured blossoms and contrasted magnificently with the darker material he had chosen.

"Ishida-kun?" she spoke as she turned to him, voice echoing in the hazy serenity of Ishida's mind. "Can I come in? The butter is melting."

With an unbidden grin that could potentially rival hers, Ishida responded quickly. "Of course, Inoue-san! Please, come in..."

* * *

**Footnotes: **

( 1 ) For those of you who don't know, a recessive gene is a rare piece of genetic makeup that only surfaces when not overshadowed by a dominant gene. It takes two recessive genes together to bring it to the surface while it takes only one dominant gene to override it. For more information on this topic, try the search word(s) "Gregor Mendel" whose experiments with genetics are famous.

For instance, in my family, dark hair is dominant whileI, on the other hand, have naturally blonde/light brown hair. Since I know that I wasn't adopted and I'm biologically related to both of my parents, obviously I've gotten some sort of recessive gene that makes me lighter than my family members.

— — —

**Authors Note: **This was originally intended to be for something else, but it got a little too long for its purpose and I couldn't bear to take anything out. Thus, it has become a stand-alone piece! Just a little ramble of fluff for IshiHime for you to enjoy...

Meanwhile, I have a different idea for my other story, so all is well in that department

I didn't bother to send this to a beta, so I apologize if it needs more editing...I figure it's okay to post as-is, so pardon me if I'm wrong.

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_**.:ObscureAnimeWriter:.**_

– _Every nerd has his day. With Inoue Orihime, Ishida Uryuu will have an entire afterlife._


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